Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 341
5th International Conference on Arts, Design and Contemporary Education (ICADCE 2019)
The Interpretation of Bonismo Cham Dance Posture
in the Ancient Books
Xiujia Li
Northwest Normal University
Lanzhou, China 730070
Abstract—The study of Bonismo Cham dance in ancient
books runs through "double-service directions" and "double-
hundred principles", adheres to the people-centered work
orientation, adheres to and inherits the gene of Chinese
cultural position, and inherits and protects the intangible
cultural heritage in a new way of "Cham dance" ancient books.
The wonderful dance posture shown in Cham Dance
scientifically puts forward another important concept of
morphological analysis in Introduction to Dance Ecology:
"conspicuous action position". Elegant flavor comes from the
plateau life of Tibetan nationality, and it is also the sublimation
of this national life and culture and art. It provides a valuable
clue for people to study the origin and development of Tibetan
folk dance, and it is a root source treasure to explore the
Tibetan dance culture.
Keywords—Cham dance; posture; Bonismo
I. INTRODUCTION
Tibetan ancient book is a special record of the Tibetan
religious dance "Cham" dance spectrum. The book records in
detail the dance theory and Cham dance movements and
music. Through the preliminary analysis and research of the
dance spectrum, it has been further known and understood
that how the Tibetan ancestors view the art of dance in
history, how to make Tibetan dance continue and develop,
and form its own dance theory and national aesthetic concept.
From this, it is inferred that what should people do with the
national traditional heritage today so that it can be further
carried forward? In order to create new art in socialist new
Tibet, it is necessary to use scientific rather than subjective,
obedient national art to develop its own law, rather than
reverse law, through the deep study of artistic heritage, to
explore the dance art which not only accords with the
national aesthetic consciousness, but also reflects the
characteristics of today's times. In order to achieve this, it is
necessary to analyze the traditional folk dance and dance
theory (including religious dance) and other comparative
research methods, inherit the traditional Tibetan dance and
dance theory on the basis of drawing a more correct
conclusion, and absorb the excellent dance art theory and
techniques of all ethnic groups at home and abroad. This
paper mainly quotes and analyzes the theory of Tibetan
dance put forward in Cham dance spectrum, so as to know
clearly about how the Tibetan ancestors regarded dance, how
to use dance to shape the image, and what kind of creative
method was adopted.
Copyright © 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
II. BEN RELIGION CHAM DANCE
Cham, a Chinese transliteration of Tibetan nouns, means
a dance performance with four limbs in Tibetan. It is a kind
of religious dance name in the activities of Tibetan Buddhist
monastery, that is, "Ben Cham s Dance", which refers to the
ritual performance of monastery for the purpose of
expressing religious meaning. Cham, a Chinese
transliteration of Tibetan nouns, means a dance performance
with four limbs in Tibetan. It is a kind of religious dance
name in the activities of Tibetan Buddhist monastery, that is,
"Ben Cham s Dance", which refers to the ritual performance
of monastery for the purpose of expressing religious
meaning. This ritual performance often takes a symbolic
form of dance, so the word "Cham" (also written as "Cham
Dance") is a specific type of dance in monasteries, also
known as monastery Nuo. "Nuo" means exorcising ghosts
and driving away diseases. There is no concept of "Nuo" in
Tibetan, but due to the special geographical conditions of
Tibetan area and the long-term historical accumulation of
Tibetan social culture, religious culture and art culture,
which determine there are still a large number of Tibetan
primitive sacrifice ceremonies (stalls), sacrifice dance (Nuo
dance) and sacrifice drama (Nuo opera). Cham s dance is
done in the form of solo dance, double dance and group
dance.
III. THE DESCRIPTION OF CHAM DANCE POSTURE IN
ANCIENT BOOKS
First: In the Tibetan literature on Bonismo Cham dance
in ancient books, it is mentioned that "all kinds of temples
Cham of the new and old denominations should have the
dance style of Jiuzhong posture". The Jiuzhong dance
posture is one of the theoretical bases that Cham must follow.
The Jiuzhong dance posture has the guiding, strong practical
and aesthetic characteristics of Tibetan dance (Cham)
performance. The artistic characteristics of Bonismo dance
Cham are expressiveness, propaganda and worship.
Obviously, in order to achieve the above "three natures",
there are many Buddhists, artists and historians in history,
expounded the art of dance as a very important part of the
study and discussion of dance. Therefore, on the history of
Bonismo dance Cham has attracted the attention of all
denominations, There are many descriptions of Cham and
"Cham" (written dance spectrum), and their contents are
extensive, the action records are detailed, and the theoretical
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discussion is thorough, which can be regarded as one of the
spirits of Chinese dance culture.
Second: The theory of Tibetan dance, which takes the
Jiuzhong dance posture as the core, reflects the height of the
ancestors' understanding of dance. The main theories of these
dances are: "What is dance?", "the role of Dance", "Cham
purpose", "how to dance", "how to pay attention to the use of
form in dance", "the relationship among song, dance and
music" and so on, and how to use "body, sound, emotion or
body, mouth, meaning" in dance organic combination to
achieve the perfect performance effect and so on.
Third: From the artistic point of view, the main form of
temple Cham dance is dance. In the three major dance types
(palace dance, folk dance, temple dance) in Tibet, the Cham
dance, which represents the temple dance, has a unique and
complete system.
a. Tibetan Cham dance has formed a more complete
dance theory, with its specific dance vocabulary, dance
structure and performance program.
b. There are rules and characteristic requirements of the
complete whole body movement in the dance technique, and
there are various steps, various dancing, rotation, squatting
and other techniques, and the gesture combination is
especially complete.
c. From music to clothing, masks, props, there are strict
norms.
d. Cham dance has a strictly standardized dance spectrum,
detailed text and circuitous dance, accurate formula for
training and performance, and organic integration of dance
and music, which is a rare ancient Tibetan dance spectrum in
the world. Since ancient times, there have been many
scriptures devoted or partly to religious dance in Tibet, such
as Wise man door, the Collection of knowledge, there is this
content in this regard. Some senior monks have also written
about monastery dance, and the monasteries have compiled
and recorded the scriptures of Cham in own's monastery.
These scriptures, the works, make a classification of Cham
from different angles. For example, in the Book of popular
Music and Dance, Luo Qin living Buddha said that there
were 360 kinds of religious dances, and discussed "Fu suit
evil magic dance", "Charred smoke dance", "Hercules with
Picking up corpses dance", "auspicious pride dance" and so
on, and divided these dances into 10 to 12 branches.
In the Collection of knowledge, Gongzhu, Yundan Jiacuo
divides Tibetan dance (including Cham) into nine kinds of
techniques. Among them, the time wheel and air travel in
Large Sea Golden rigid Curtain Yoga Family and King Kong
Buddha beads and so on are discussed in books. The
classification of the dance on the ground (To make a
diamond dance, to take a golden step.) to the worship dance;
The magic anger dance of Ningmatist, the combination of
Big party & eight spiritual practices and full of King Kong
chunks drinking blood vessel dance, the classification of
reclusive dance; as well as all kinds of temple dance of old
and new denominations, all should have nine styles of dance
art and techniques.
IV. THESE NINE KINDS OF SKILLS OR NINE KINDS OF
DANCE POSTURES
First: Charming posture: the external form of exciting
activities in the heart when witnessing a beautiful object or
environment. It can be divided into body, language, beautiful
form of "internal charm" and flowers, plants and trees and
other charming scenery "external charm".
Second: Heroic posture: an external form of intense
activity in the heart of a difficult thing. It can be divided into
the "Dharma-Hamah" that is not afraid to follow the alms &
religious disciplines and "worldly heroic" that is not afraid of
adversaries, evil spirits and beasts. It can also be divided into
"giving heroic" without cover and supply, "dharma heroic"
that is not afraid to obey religious disciplines and drudgery,
"battlefield heroic" that is not afraid of enemies & beasts.
Third: Tiresome posture: the external form of aversion in
the heart to a dirty object. It can be divided into morbid
disability "body is tiresome", phonological incomplete
"language is tiresome", dirty ornament "dress is tiresome",
ground uneven branches withered and cracked "environment
is tiresome".
Fourth: Ferocious posture: an external gesture towards a
harmful object, an angry activity in the heart. It can be
divided into the "ferocious Dharma" of the eradication of
evil & bad habits and the "mundane ferocious" of daily
brutality.
Fifth: Ridiculous posture: an external posture shown by
ridiculous activities in the heart of a strange object. It can be
divided into "inner ridiculous" caused by action and
language and "external ridiculous" caused by objective
environment.
Sixth: Terrorist posture: the external posture of fear
activity in the face of an object stronger than itself. It can be
divided into the "Dharma Terror" of six acts, such as charity
and the "worldly horror" of witnessing ferocious acts such as
night forks, Roshi, Qingzi, etc.
Seventh: Compassion posture: it is a sympathetic
psychological activity for a particularly lovely object, and is
shown as an external gesture. Compassion posture that is
moved by the act of a noble and altruistic act is called respect;
compassion posture that is made for the mercy of the victims
is called humble.
Eighth: Majesty posture: for being surprised at the heart
of an excellent object, it shows the external posture. Because
of status, appearance, wealth is superior to others, it is
"worldly majesty", and because of wisdom and knowledge
are superior to others, it is "Dharma majesty".
Ninth: Gentle posture: for treating the objects of different
status and situations equally, it shows the external posture. It
is divided into "worldly moderation", which is not arrogant
because of status, power and wealth, and "Dharma
moderation", which is not arrogant because of knowledge
and talent.
The above nine postures can also be classified according
to body, language and meaning: Charming, heroic and
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tiresome are called three posture of the body; Ferocious,
ridiculous and terror are called three gestures of language;
Compassion, majesty and gentle are called mind three kinds
of posture. Cham dance movements, roughly not beyond
these areas, or slow stretch movement indicates mild, clear
and bright movement indicates heroic, vigorous and quick
movement indicates anger.
A. Posture of Hands and Feet
First: Stand on heel, with chest out for the upper body;
second: The footsteps keep down backward, then put inward;
third: Step backward, first outside and then inside; third:
Bounce with chest out for the upper body; fifth: Walk the
circles for continuous several times; sixth: Fully keep belly
sagging and dancing again; seventh: Turn inside then put
outward. Eighth: The footsteps keep down backward, then
jump; ninth: Turn head backwards and then jump to the side;
tenth: The foot extends to the left, with a jump step; eleventh:
Light smart and dagger jump; twelfth: Squat jump
continuously with the sound of the drum; thirteenth: Sit
along the rotating cross, with one-legged standing; fourteenth:
Forward-only jump continuously; fifteenth: Side staggered
step; sixteenth: Bend next to turn first and then jump;
seventeenth: Round running and jump step; eighteenth: jump
to the side with one leg; nineteenth: Jump on one leg with
shoulder tremble; twentieth: Flick backwards and jump and
turn; twenty first: one turn, binary-hop; twenty second: Move
one foot out ward, with the body toward the inside; twenty
third: Jump diagonally to the right; twenty fourth: rightward
jump, leftward lower side waist; twenty fifth: Leftward and
rightward jump; twenty sixth: Jump forward with chest out
for the upper body; twenty seventh: Turn and stop
continuously; twenty eighth: Continuous jump and turn;
twenty ninth: The heel slanted off to the side leg; thirtieth:
Lift legs and turn side; thirty first: Move with the heel
thrown backward.
B. Posture of the Head and Hands
First: Stretch left hand and dance with arms swing
shaking. Second: dance with double hands; third: Hold the
flag in left hand; fourth: Raise sword; fifth: Hacking posture;
sixth: Sun and Moon Put down Gently (refers to props);
seventh: Raise sword and spear in turn; eighth: Pat the chest
for driving away the ghost; ninth: Raise sword to turn team
flag; tenth: Upper body turns to side with majesty; eleventh:
Team flag landed; twelfth: Pat the chest for several times;
thirteenth: Prepare to throw noose; fourteenth: Look back at
heroic posture; fifteenth: The upper body turns back to look.
The above discussion vividly expounds that dance is an
art rather than a game, so dance cannot be regarded as a
children's play, so it is necessary to perform the content of
the performance vividly, to fly like Roc, and to give people
the feeling of flying wings. In particular, it is pointed out that
Cham clothing should serve the content, make the dance art
more complete, make the dance more passionate, and enrich
the vocabulary of dance Cham. At the same time, the body
requirements proposed by the dancer fully conform to the
basic aesthetic characteristics of Tibetan dance, in particular,
the requirements and basic images of dance movements in all
parts of the human body are in line with the law of clothing.
V. ANALYSIS OF CHAM DANCE BODY LANGUAGE
CURVE
Torso is its main tool of language expression in dance
style language. When the ups and downs of the torso show a
regular sinusoidal movement, it turns to the expressive force
of all parts of the human body, such as hands, eyes, body,
method, step and so on. Whether it is up and down or back
and forth, from the psychological state of "action starts from
the heart", it can see that the upper body of the human body
is good at showing subtle and affectionate feelings. The
lower half of the human body mainly lies in the function of
various dance steps and skills, which are composed of dance
posture lines, a kind of relaxed body language flow, it's some
kind of strong emotional consciousness, the more covert
body language hint that is about to erupt.
A. The Basic Form of Cham Dance
The basic form of Cham dance is round, from the form of
circular dance to the circle of the human body has become
the basic posture of Cham dance movements, and formed the
aesthetic characteristics of Cham dance art. The circle can be
divided into a semi-circular shape, a circle, a local circle, on
the basis of circle derived arc, oblique line, flat line, zigzag
line and so on. The expression of dance is the body, limbs
and expression of the dancer, while the body motion of the
person is the basic element of the dance language. The
expressiveness of Cham dance style language is based on the
unique curved aesthetic feeling and expresses its beauty by
circle. "Rhythmic" in dance ecology refers to a type of
rhythm formed by alternating dynamic and static patterns
between parts of the body in dance form movement, showing
a certain form of movement law. In Introduction to Dance
Ecology, the steps are carefully screened according to the
order of feet, calves and thighs. It is pointed out that the
feature extraction of feet must pay attention to the
relationship between foot and ground in time domain and
spatial domain, the way of landing, the direction of process,
the severity of landing, and so on.
B. Analysis on the Dance Movement of the Human Body
1) A sense of stability: This is the primary requirement
of the aesthetic feeling of dance body language. In Cham
dance, it is not only the skillful technical factor of dance
movement, but also the grasp of psychological factor, which
ensures the stability and play of the curve circle of body
language with the pure relaxation of psychology.
2) Harmony: In the expression of Cham dance style
language, the ability of harmony among various parts is
used to achieve harmonious beauty. In any case, the hand,
the arm, the head, the chest, the waist, the step, the Chen
and so on can be organically combined.
3) Fluency: A sense of motion on the level of the stage.
Movement, combination composition, scheduling fluency is
based on emotional fluency. On the basis of dance body
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language, it should be understood that the combination of from feeling to mind, it gives people a heavy, twisted,
the connotation of action and the emotion of music, to make depressed sense, which lays the foundation for the aesthetic
the dance movement into the whole body power, and to uniqueness of Cham dance.
make the flowing body language more fluent. By forming
the unique internal psychological activity line of the dancer,
the inner emotion is closely related to the muscle function of REFERENCES
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feeling comes from within the body and is the dancer's Art Press. 2005. (in Chinese)
feeling party of his body movement, state and direction, [4] Li Jicheng. Buddhist secret ritual peeping [M]. Dalian Publishing
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5) Stretching out: It is the extroverted expansibility and [7] Guo Jing. Transcendent Soul- a double Ghost Terracotta Warriors in
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Cham dance sleeve movement first adduct,and then 1993. (in Chinese)
continuously produced outwardly extend, stretch, spread out,
open, lay down and other sensory levels. It makes dancers
produce rich images, a magical force that connects actors'
hearts with blue sky and white clouds, flies freely in the
blue sky, and expresses emotional life with the greatest
passion and impulse.
6) Implicit: It is the excavation into the depths of the
mind, it is the introverted accumulation and deep expansion
of the action. In the basic dance posture and footwork of
Cham soft dance, which often runs through by meaning and
gas: lift up the gas and transport the gas, after gas storage
and gas generation, making the dance drive the implicit of
the movement with the implicit of emotion.
In a word, the study of dance body language curve is a
long-term problem. At present, in the combination of dance
sentence segments and aesthetic feeling, the elements of
dance need to be expressed in dance language, so it is
necessary to be clear, having substance in words, and
language combination should be logical, and dance body
language should have high requirements. The folk custom,
culture and environment and so on of Tibetan group
determine the body language culture of the nationality, and
the recognition of posture and the application of action all
form their aesthetic standard and aesthetic requirements. The
form of dance can be diversified, but the most inherent style
cannot be changed; if changed, it is impossible to talk about
the style and action characteristics of Cham dance and so on.
Therefore, in the study of body language of Cham dance, the
first thing is to make clear that the study subject is the core
issue of Tibetan folk dance.

VI. CONCLUSION
"Cham" dance has the artistic form of Tibetan Buddhist
art value, which has gone beyond the aesthetic connotation in
the traditional sense, and it is the rebellion and alienation of
beauty. Its harshness, horror and grotesque make the form of
Cham dance movements generally have "ugly beauty", and

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